On a broader level, joint Federal/local violent force directed against social justice activists characterized much of the civil rights movement, and, before that, organized labor’s struggle. Of course, that long history of violence grew out of the legalized genocide and oppression that brought the attempted annihilation of North America’s First Peoples and the enslavement of Africans and others in the colonies and then in America.

Who benefited? Who benefits? From the destruction of the First Peoples up through the corporatists’ sustained and massive assault on our public institutions and public resources over the past forty years, the answer is the same: the wealthiest of the wealthy. The plantation owners, the mine owners, Big Cattle, Big Pork, Big War Machines, Big Surveillance Machines, Big Serial Poisoners…and now, Big Mercenaries.

What possible evidence suggests our very own public servants — the Congresscritters we seem to love so much the incumbents enjoy more than a 90% chance to return to Village service with each election — what possible evidence suggests these august tribunes of the Republic would criminalize the commons and public dissent to protect the megacorps? Who could believe such a slander?

What are "the commons"? The commons are the public spaces, rights of way, lands, institutions, and resources we all must share, and must preserve for furture generations to share.

A century ago, Americans who challenged corporate control and plutocrat ownership of civil society, public institutions, and the commons were derided as "anarchists" and mercilessly hunted by "law" enforcement and Pinkerton (the Blackwater of that era). After 1917, Americans who challenged corporatist rule and plutocrat rulers were hunted for being "communists". A decade or so ago, Americans who worked for social justice to oppose corporatist misrule were once again "anarchists". Today in the Twin Cities, we see that Americans who peacefully come together to feed one another, heal one another, document one another’s struggles, and work together to preserve our wounded planet, ailing nation, and suffering people from corporatist domination and endless war are "terrorists".

How do we know? Why, the same traveling Federal propaganda show that makes the circuit preaching the gospel of fear and paranoia to local "law" enforcement before each major public protest of the last nine years tells us so. You know, the same Federal apparatchniks we can trust to change threat colors before elections, listen to our phones, read our email and letters, rendition abduct and illegally transport innocent civilians, torture innocent people, imprison children, and conduct secret show trials.

We can trust them, right? Sure, if we want to stand in line for handouts like the apparently power-mad Sheriff of Ramsey County and his uniformed mob.

Uh – no thanks. I’ll stand with three centuries of Americans who have worked to expand the franchise and diffuse power — peacefully and non-violently. Standing with the global justice movement may mean sending money or people to the Twin Cities protests…and the protests that are to come. Standing with the global justice movement may mean supporting the ACLU, NLG, Civil Liberties Defense Center, Partnership For Civil Justice, Food Not Bombs, Seeds of Peace, Ruckus Society, or even EarthFirst! — all groups that work to keep open the door for public protest and non-violent dissent.

In the end, the strongest stand we can take to reclaim our Republic, protect our Constitution, continue three centuries of empowerment, and support the social justice movement is the stand we take with our own two feet. We might stand in the soup kitchen, or in the medic stations. We might stand with the legal observers, or the media observers. We might stand with the marchers — or stand to open our front doors and back doors and garages when they are beaten or gassed off the streets. Or stand to open our places of worship and other sanctuaries to the innocent people fleeing the tyranny of mass arrest and mass raids.

Why stand together with them? Should we fail, we will only live in fear of the corporatist tyranny that can and does show the power to snatch us away, serially and separately.

The Twin Cities show us all one future. Together, we can choose another.